Friday, 10 June 2022

Top Cats and Top Gun

We went to Nairn to visit Alison and Hugh on Wednesday and returned on Thursday. Before we set off we piled up lots of wet and dry food into the cats’ bowls and left them plenty of water. We had lunch with Alison and Hugh and then we went for a walk in the lovely little town of Forres. It really is very attractive with a centre that dates right back to medieval times, which amazes me since we are so far north. I must look further into the history of the area. We walked up a small hill in a park, on the top of which stands the rather magnificent Nelson’s Tower, erected in the early 19th century to honour Lord Nelson after he died at the Battle of Trafalgar. We climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the open-air top deck, from where we had an amazing 360 degree view of the town and surrounding area, including across the Findhorn River and the Moray Firth towards the Caithness Hills to the north. Later we had a tasty dinner at the Fig and Thistle in Inverness, where the service was very good, I would definitely go back. 
The next morning we asked Alison and Hugh for a garden update so we went for a stroll around their beautiful and massive garden, looking at how it’s growing and maturing thanks to all of their hard work. The kitchen garden in particular is amazing, abundant with gorgeous flowers and herbs. What was very funny was that we had two extra tour guides - Ash and Birch accompanied us every step of the way, sometimes running about and playing but always returning to us; they are such sociable cats, full of fun. 
We had a walk along the front at Nairn and then a pub lunch before Alison attended a committee meeting by Zoom and the other three of us went to see Top Gun: Maverick at the Vue cinema in Inverness. Hugh gave me a lift there in his Jaguar which was brilliant and very fast! 
It’s hard to believe that it’s 36 years since the first Top Gun film was released. James and I were not long married and went to see it at the cinema; we both loved it and of course James loved the flying sequences. So it was with some trepidation that we watched the sequel, how could it possibly live up to the iconic original? We needn’t have worried, it was great fun with many fitting tributes to the first film, and James declared himself satisfied that the aircraft and flying was both accurate and extremely well filmed. 

No comments:

Post a Comment